Best Snickerdoodle Cookies

Best Snickerdoodle Cookies

Snickerdoodle cookies are a pleasant treat rolled in cinnamon and sugar. The spiced coating creates a crackly crisp exterior with surprisingly thick soft centers. It’s the right balance of straightforward flavors and contrasting textures.

Snickerdoodle cookies are different than other drop cookies as they need a touch of tangy flavor balanced with warm spices, and a candy-like crust. Their distinctive thickness and soft texture is achieved by using equal parts butter and shortening.


Enjoy them warm from the oven, or add some frozen dessert within the middle to form sandwiches. These simple, eye-catching cookies are a must have for any celebration. No got to chill the dough like chocolate chip cookies, just mix and bake!


How to make snickerdoodle cookies

• Preheat oven to 375ºF (191ºC).
• Whisk flour, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda , and salt.
• In a stand mixer, cream the butter, shortening, and sugar.
• Incorporate eggs one at a time with the butter mixture.
• Stir within the dry ingredients and mix until the dough feels stiff.
• In a small bowl combine cinnamon and sugar to coat the cookies.
• Form into dough balls.
• Bake until edges set and centers are puffy.
• Cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

What’s the difference between a cookie and a Snickerdoodle?

Sugar cookies have a sweet vanilla base and sometimes use a mixture of leaven , bicarbonate of soda , butter, and oil. They’re rolled in only sugar or colored sugars.


Snickerdoodle cookies have a particular tangy flavor from cream of tartar and use vegetable shortening additionally to butter. The dough balls are rolled in cinnamon sugar mixture for more of a churro-like taste.


Don’t skip the cream of tartar!

Cream of tartar (potassium bitartrate) gives snickerdoodle cookies a rather tart flavor. It provides a pleasant balance to the abundance of sugar that’s added to the dough and coating, otherwise, it might taste bland and overly sweet.


The acidic salt may be a byproduct of fruit juice and winemaking that appears sort of a fine white powder. It can help stabilize eggs or add a rather sour taste to cookies and cakes. It’s also added because the acidic component to leaven to assist food instantly rise.


Creating a crinkly cookie surface

Adding during a generous amount of cream of tartar paired with bicarbonate of soda creates a rapid CO2 reaction. These bubbles help the cookies rise, but also crack on the highest which is what we would like .


The cookies bake at a rather higher temperature in order that the sides set quickly and not overly spread. Baking almost 10 minutes, and cooling them on the nice and cozy sheet pan allows for carryover cooking and keeps the feel soft and chewy.


Add in two sorts of fat

Shortening is formed from hydrogenating oil , which contains no water but features a very bland taste. This helps the cookies hold their shape and stop spreading in order that they stay nice and high. Butter adds incredible baked flavors from the milk solids, which also brown to offer the cookies a more attractive aroma and appearance.


I did some extensive testing on the consequences of adding butter vs shortening in cookies, and located some very interesting results! Using only butter makes the cookies spread an excessive amount of and feel very greasy. Using only shortening keeps them thick but with little or no flavor dimension. A 50:50 mix provides flavor, holds the form better, and provides a soft bite.


Ways to adapt this snickerdoodle recipe

• Add ½ to 1 teaspoon of vanilla for a richer flavor.
• Use ½ teaspoon almond or hazelnut extract to feature a nutty taste.
• Make it chai-flavored by adding ground ginger, cardamom, and cloves.

Don’t use leaven
This snickerdoodle cookies recipe involves bicarbonate of soda and cream of tartar, which is extremely almost like leaven but without the starch that forestalls the ingredients from reacting when stored. If you add a further chemical leavening agent like leaven , the cookies will spread an excessive amount of and be overly sour in taste.

Ingredients

Snickerdoodle Cookies

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, (355g, 12 1/2 ounces)
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar, (8g, ¼ ounce)
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda , (6g, ⅛ ounces)
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt, (2g)
• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, (½ cup, 4 ounces, 109g) softened to 65 to 67ºF (18 to 20ºC)
• 8 tablespoons vegetable shortening, (90g, 3 ⅛ ounces) Crisco
• 1 ½ cups sugar , (298g, 10 ½ ounces)
• 2 large eggs

Cinnamon Sugar Coating

• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon, (10g, ¼ ounce)
• ¼ cup sugar , (47g, 1 5/8 ounces)

Instructions

1. Set the oven rack to the middle position and preheat to 375ºF (191ºC).
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, cream of tartar, bicarbonate of soda , and salt.
4. Fit a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or use a hand mixer. On medium speed, beat the butter, shortening, and 1 1 ½ cups of sugar until pale and fluffy, 3 minutes.
5. Add the eggs, one at a time to the butter mixture. Mix on medium speed until incorporated, 30 seconds. Scrape the edges of the bowl in between addition.
6. Turn the mixer to rock bottom setting and slowly add within the flour. Mix until just combined and therefore the dough feels stiff, about 30 seconds.
7. Stir the dough with a spatula to include any flour pockets, but don't overmix.
8. In a small bowl combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon.
9. Make 2 tablespoons (30g, 1 ounce) sized cookie dough balls, then roll into the cinnamon-sugar mixture to completely coat the surface . Repeat with remaining cookie dough.
10. Stagger the cookies 3-inches apart on the baking sheets, about 9 to 12 per sheet.
11. Bake the cookies, 1 sheet at a time until the sides are just set and starting to brown, about 10 to 12 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. The centers should be puffy, soft, and cracked and can look slightly raw within the cracks.
12. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 10 minutes.
13. Transfer to a cooling rack.

Notes

• For medium speed setting on a Kitchenaid or similar mixer, use setting 5.
• Refrigerated cookie dough: Shape, appear cinnamon and sugar, then refrigerate in an airtight container for up to five days. Bake at 375ºF (191ºC) until edges are set and centers are puffy.
• Frozen cookie dough: Shape, appear cinnamon and sugar, freeze during a resealable bag for up to 1 month. Bake at 300ºF (149ºC) for 18 to twenty minutes, rotating halfway through.
• Make it Gluten-Free: Subsitute gluten-free flour for all-purpose flour. I reccomened Bob's Red Mill 1:1 gluten-free baking flour.
• Recipe adapted from Cook’s Illustrated.